Don’t take the fish — or other sea creatures — in Marine Protected Areas. Don’t even slip a shell into your beach bag.

People may be watching and documenting your every move, noting whether you’re breaking the law while exploring sensitive ecosystems.

A family looks at the marine life among the rocks in the tide pools on Little Corona Beach in Corona Del Mar, a marine protected area that has one of the most violations for people taking from tidepools. File photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG

A view looking north across Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna Beach. From the north end of the beach to Crescent Bay is the Laguna Bluebelt, a marine protected area. File photo by Mark Rightmire, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/SCNG

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State Fish and Wildlife Warden Nick Molsberry walks past signs explaining the Marine Protected area at Table Rock Beach during his patrol in Laguna Beach. File photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG

Aerial of Marine Protection Area off the coast of Palos Verdes Peninsula at Abalone Cove State Marine Conservation, right, Terranea Resort is at left. (File: Photo by Robert Casillas, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

But studies show along the coastline, there’s still plenty of violations – whether accidental or intentional — of strict rules set in place.

Protecting the coast

The Marine Life Protection Act was signed in 1999, but wasn’t enacted until 2012. Its purpose is to reexamine and redesign California’s system of MPAs for a long-term plan to protect marine environments from overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction.

Areas stretch from Northern California to the Mexico border.

In Orange County, they include areas from Bolsa Chica and Crystal Cove, through Laguna Beach, and into Dana Point.

In Los Angeles County, they include Point Dume north of Malibu and Point Vicente/Abalone Cove off Palos Verdes.

While some areas have restrictions but still allow some fishing, others – such as Laguna Beach and Point Vicente/Abalone Cove – are a “no-take” zone, meaning nothing can be taken out of the ocean, from tide pools or beaches.

Orange County study

Orange County Coastkeeper last week released its latest MPA Watch report, an analysis documented by volunteers of human activity at Orange County’s seven MPAs in 2017.

Data gathered through Orange County Coastkeeper’s MPA watch programs can be as simple as a two-minute scan of the beach, or a 30-minute walk from one point to another. There are similar MPA surveys along the entire California coastline.

“This is designed as a program that is statewide, we’re all doing the same thing,” said Ray Hiemstra, associate director of programs for Orange County Coastkeeper. “This is data we never had before.”

The volunteers observed the behavior of 21,176 people at Orange County MPAs. A majority of observations – 85.2 percent — were of onshore recreational activities like swimming, sunbathing, running and wildlife viewing. Offshore activities like surfing, diving, snorkeling and boating made up 14.8 percent of those surveyed.

Hiemstra said the data on human behavior in MPAs could inform the “things marine managers need to make decisions about.”

“If there’s areas where there’s a lot of tidepooling going on – that’s perfectly legal,” Hiemstra said. “But you may want to put additional signage or docents out there.”

The 2017 report was the fifth year data has been compiled, and overall there have been fewer and fewer violations, he said.

Most people – about 98 percent of them – left marine life where they found it.

“It’s not illegal to touch the animals, it is to take things from tidepools – that’s where the docent programs are important,” he said.

But still, there were some law breakers.

Volunteers counted 101 potential violations of MPA regulations — showing a need for community education to inform the public how to enjoy MPAs while keeping sustainability in mind, according to Coastkeeper.

“We do have a few hot spots where we’re still seeing most of the violations,” he said, citing Little Corona del Mar in Newport Beach, Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach and Aliso Creek beach as problem areas.

Watching the water

Los Angeles Waterkeeper has a unique boat-based survey program that helps document activities happening at Point Dume and Point Vicente-Abalone Cove, with more than 300 volunteers that have helped collect data since the program started in 2012. Further north, areas of Santa Barbara Island and Channel Islands are protected.

Fishing in these protected areas is prohibited or restricted. While some illegal fishing is accidental, there are folks out there who knowingly break the laws, called “poachers.”

Michael Quill, Marine Programs Director at Los Angeles Waterkeeper, said they do about 70 trips a year, at least once a week. They just expanded to also keep watch off Catalina Island.

“We have most people complying with the regulations, but we have a lot of folks going out fishing without checking on the regulation – apparently unknowingly,” he said.

He said the most violated area is Point Vicente, a busier area in Palos Verdes that historically was a long-time fishing area.

“Folks that maybe don’t go out very often may not be up to speed” on the current no-catch rules, he said.

The group has created measures like putting pamphlets on the docks. They attempted to put buoys on the water to mark the no-take zone, but because of safety reasons those didn’t work out.

“It’s been a challenge since the beginning to see how we’re going to let people know on the water,” Quill said.

Much of the time, it’s about doing outreach on the ocean when they see someone pulling in catch in the area.

Bad actors

Some, however, are knowingly breaking the law.

A fishing charter company based in San Diego was busted for intentionally ignoring rules near the Santa Barbara Island State Marine Reserve and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife sent undercover wardens aboard the Pacific Star Sportfishing, Inc. charter boat in 2013.

They found violations such as using illegal fishing gear, allowing passengers to fish without a license, exceeding catch limits of several fish species, failing to report accurate counts on logbooks, and catching and keeping undersized fish, with an estimated 18 separate violations of wildlife rules within the Marine Protected Areas.

The Pacific Star was originally fined $4,700 — a small fine considering each charter charges between $6,000 to $11,500 for a 2.5-day trip.

The CDFW filed an accusation with the California Fish and Game Commission, requesting it suspend Pacific Star’s commercial passenger fishing vessel license. The request was granted earlier this year, a five-year suspension that restricts Pacific Star’s commercial operations, according to a news announcement on LA Waterkeeper’s website about the incident.

“MPA violations knowingly committed by poachers like Pacific Star are acts of community thievery that serve to weaken the abundance and health of our MPAs,” said the CFG Commission President Eric Sklar in the statement. “These are acts of theft for profit.

“The Commission’s decision to suspend Pacific Star’s license for 5 years and basically put them out of business, is a strong outreach and education statement that reinforces how seriously California takes protection of our marine resources. Hopefully this statement will encourage fishers to think twice before breaking the law.”

Want to volunteer to collect data on the water and shore? Coastkeeper and Los Angeles Waterkeeper are always looking for more people to help document human use of the beaches and ocean. Go to mpawatch.org for more info.

Laylan Connelly started as a journalist in 2002 after earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Through the years, she has covered several cities for The Orange County Register, starting as a beat reporter in Irvine before focusing on coastal cities such as Newport Beach, Dana Point and Laguna Beach. In 2007, she was selected for a prestigious Knight New Media fellowship focusing on digital media at UC Berkeley, where she learned skills to adapt to the ever-changing online landscape. Using a web-based approach, she turned her love for the ocean into a full-time gig as the paper’s beaches reporter. The unique beat allows her to delve into coastal culture by covering everything from the countless events dotting the 42 miles of coastline, to the business climate of the surf industry, to the fascinating wildlife that shows up on the shores. Most importantly, she takes pride in telling stories of the people who make the beaches so special, whether they are surfers using the ocean to heal, or the founders of major surf brands who helped spawn an entire culture, or people who tirelessly fight to keep the coast pristine and open for all to enjoy. She’s a world traveler who loves to explore the slopes during winter months or exotic surf spots around the globe. When she’s not working, or maybe while she's researching a story, you can find her longboarding at her favorite surf spots at San Onofre or Doheny.